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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

Yes.

Vice President Kamala Harris proposed Medicare for All, covering all Americans in one government health plan, when she ran for president in 2019.

Asked if it would include undocumented immigrants, she said yes. Asked if she supported including people “in this country illegally,” Harris said she opposed “any policy that would deny … any human being from access to … public health, period.”

In 2024, Harris touted her work to ensure “Dreamers” – people brought to the U.S. without documentation as children – “have access to affordable health care.”

We didn’t find evidence to back Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s statement in Waukesha, Wisconsin, that Harris “promised to give Medicare to illegal aliens.”

Medicare is government health insurance mainly for people age 65 and over.

Harris’ campaign pointed to PolitiFact’s August 2024 report that Harris has not expressly said she supports free, taxpayer-supported health coverage for undocumented immigrants.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Kamala Harris on Medium: My Plan For Medicare For All. In America, health care should be a…

Bloomberg Quicktake: All Democrats Say Their Health Plan Would Cover Undocumented Immigrants

Washington Post: Where Democrats Stand

CNN: Kamala Harris interview transcript

The White House: Statement from Vice President Kamala Harris on the Anniversary of DACA

LiveNOW from FOX: WATCH: JD Vance campaigns in Wisconsin | LiveNOW from FOX

PolitiFact: GOP Charge That Harris Backed Taxpayer-Funded Care for All Immigrants Overlooks Details

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Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time reporter in October 2024. He started as a fact checker in January 2023 and contributes to our collaboration with the The Gigafact Project to fight misinformation online. Kertscher is a former longtime newspaper reporter, including at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He is a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and sports freelancer for The Associated Press.